Library & Archive Trash¶

BamDude keeps two independent trash bins so deletions never silently destroy data:

Library trash — for files you uploaded or sliced into the library. Has an opt-in auto-purge that moves idle files into the bin on a 24h drift schedule.
Archive trash — for archive rows you (or "Empty trash" sweeps) explicitly delete. Manual-only since 0.4.2 — there is no longer a daily auto-purge that moves old archive rows here.

Both bins have the same shape: soft-delete on user-initiated delete, configurable restore window, scheduled retention sweeper that hard-deletes anything past the window, and a chain-of-custody guard that refuses to hard-delete library bytes still referenced by an active archive.

Why archive auto-purge was removed in 0.4.2

The upstream-ported archive auto-purge ran daily and moved any archive row older than the configured threshold into the trash. In a BamDude post-b1 world this was both redundant (the per-design 3MF Auto-Cleanup already reclaims the disk for cold designs while preserving history) and harmful (per-row aging meant a model printed weekly for two years would lose its earliest ~70 archive rows individually, even though the design was still hot — silently destroying the print history BamDude exists to preserve). The manual delete → trash → restore → empty-trash flow stays intact for explicit row deletes; only the daily auto-purge sweep is gone.

How soft-delete works¶

When you delete a library file or an archive (manually, or via auto-purge):

The row gets deleted_at = now() — it disappears from the main list and from dedup queries.
Bytes + thumbnails stay on disk untouched.
The trash page (admin section in Settings, plus dedicated /files/trash and /archives/trash routes) lists every soft-deleted row with a countdown to hard-delete.
Restore flips deleted_at back to NULL — the row reappears as if nothing happened.
Hard-delete now removes the row + bytes immediately (admin only).
After the configured retention window, a background sweeper hard-deletes anything that's been in the trash longer than the threshold.

Reference-aware hard-delete¶

Library files can be referenced by archive rows (every print of a file gets an archive). If you hard-delete library bytes that are still pinned by an active (non-trashed) archive, you break chain-of-custody — reprints from that archive would have nothing to send.

BamDude refuses such deletes with a 409 Conflict and a structured payload:

{
  "code": "library_file_pinned_by_archives",
  "active_references": 3,
  "message": "..."
}

The UI surfaces it as Pinned by 3 active archives — delete those first or trash them too. The bulk Empty trash action skips pinned files and reports the count separately so you see why some entries remain.

The library trash sweeper applies the same gate at retention time: a row past its retention window stays pinned and waits for the next tick if archives still reference it. Once those archives are also trashed, the file becomes eligible for hard-delete on the following sweeper tick.

Settings¶

Settings → Printing → File Manager has two stacked sub-blocks (auto-purge first, trash retention at the bottom — same order as Archive Settings):

Library auto-purge¶

The expanded controls collapse out of view when the toggle is off; flip it on to reveal them.

Setting	Default	What it controls
Auto-purge enabled	off	Master toggle for the drift-mode purge that moves idle library files into the trash. Gates the 15-min auto-tick only — manual `/library/purge` always works.
Auto-purge age	90 days	Files idle (no recent print, no recent edit) longer than this become eligible for auto-purge.
Include never-printed	off	When on, never-printed files also count toward the auto-purge threshold. When off, only printed files get auto-purged — protects files you uploaded but haven't printed yet.
Last / Next run cards (0.4.2)	—	Same shared `<LastNextRunCards>` component used by archive 3MF cleanup. Shows "moved 5 file(s) to trash, 4 hours ago" + "in ~20 hours". After a server restart the in-memory `moved` count is lost; the card reads "count was lost on restart — see logs" instead of `0` (the persistent `library_auto_purge_last_run` timestamp survives, only the count goes).

Library trash retention¶

Setting	Default	What it controls
Trash retention	30 days	How long a soft-deleted file sits in the bin before the sweeper hard-deletes it. Range 1–365 days. The retention sweeper runs every 15 min — same cadence as before.

Archive trash retention¶

Auto-purge for archives was removed in 0.4.2 (see the note at the top of this page). Only the trash retention sweeper remains:

Setting	Default	What it controls
Trash retention	30 days	How long a soft-deleted archive sits in the bin before the sweeper hard-deletes it. Range 1–365 days. The sweeper still runs every 15 min.

Schedule shape (both bins)¶

Mechanism	Cadence	Resets
Library auto-purge	15 min tick → run when `now - last_run >= 24 h`	Auto-tick + manual `/library/purge` both stamp `library_auto_purge_last_run`
Archive 3MF cleanup	15 min tick → run when `now - last_run >= 24 h`	Auto-tick + manual `/archives/cleanup/run` both stamp `archive_3mf_cleanup_last_run`
Trash retention sweeper (both)	15 min tick → hard-delete anything past the configured window	n/a

First-fire delay (auto-purge / cleanup): the loop sleeps 15 min before the first evaluation, so enabling the toggle now means the first auto-run lands ~15 min later (no last-run exists yet, so the 24h gate doesn't apply on the first tick). Click "Run now" to fire instantly — the manual run stamps the same last_run timestamp and starts the 24h drift cycle.

Permissions¶

Permission	Grants
`library:delete_own` / `library:delete_all`	Soft-delete (move to trash). Same permission already gates the regular delete button — if you can delete, you can recover.
`archives:delete_own` / `archives:delete_all`	Same, for archives.
`library:purge`	Trigger admin purge + change library trash settings.
`archives:purge`	Trigger admin purge + change archive trash settings.

Manual hard-delete from the trash page also requires the matching library:purge / archives:purge.

Restore / Empty / Hard-delete¶

Both trash pages support:

Restore — flip deleted_at back to NULL. Row reappears in the main list.
Hard-delete now — admin-only. Removes the row + bytes immediately, bypasses the retention window.
Empty trash — bulk hard-delete every eligible row. Skips pinned files (library) and reports {deleted, skipped_pinned} so the UI can explain the gap.
Multi-select — bulk Restore and bulk Hard-delete on selected rows.

Restoring a library file asks before it recreates a duplicate

Every other path now refuses to store the same file twice, so taking one back out of the trash is the one way left to end up with two identical files. Restore checks first, and speaks up only when the file really is byte-identical to one you already have — the dialog names the file that is already there and you decide.

Restoring several at once asks once, listing exactly which of them are duplicates, and offers to restore only the rest. A file with nothing matching it restores as before, without a question.

It asks; it does not refuse. A duplicate can be deliberate — two MakerWorld profiles can produce byte-identical 3MFs — and the person restoring is the one who put the file there.

The archive trash never actually deleted anything before 0.5.4

Emptying it reported 0 deleted and removed nothing at all; Delete permanently on a single archive answered an error; and the retention sweeper removed the database rows while leaving every 3MF, preview, timelapse and photo on disk. Fixed in 0.5.4 — but files leaked before then are still on disk, and BamDude will not go and delete them unasked. scripts/prune_orphan_archive_files.py lists what is no longer referenced and removes it only with --apply.

Dedup ignores trashed rows¶

Every dedup query in BamDude — library upload check, "X duplicates" badge in the file list, the file-detail "Find similar" panel, archive find_existing_archive chain anchor — filters out trashed rows. A trashed sibling is never treated as the source of truth: deleting a file from the bin doesn't suddenly inflate other files' duplicate counters; uploading a fresh copy of a trashed file imports cleanly instead of being silently linked back to the doomed row.

External folders bypass the trash¶

External library folders (mounted NAS shares, USB drives) don't go through the trash — their bytes live outside BamDude's control, so there's nothing to restore. Deleting an external entry just drops the DB row + thumbnail; the underlying file on the mount is untouched.

The bulk Empty trash action and per-row Hard-delete now never touch external folders.

File Manager — where the Trash button + Purge old button live.
Print Archiving — archive trash management lives next to the archives header.
Authentication — how library:purge / archives:purge are wired to default groups.